Your Online Business

A lot of people in the Twitterverse are posting that the iBusiness is similar to the popular blogging tool WordPress, or some of the content management systems like Joomla or Drupal. I have to believe that that comparison is based on a very high helicopter view of the iBusiness and not the results of seeing an actual demo of what the iBusiness can do for them.

Yes, it does what WordPress does. Yep it does what Joomla and Drupal does. And when we have covered those feature sets we are only about 20% of the way into the iBusiness presentation. We've barely covered what an iBusiness can do for you to help you market your brand, sell your products, build an organization, or coordinate an effective online campaign.

If all you want to do is write about watching your Yorkie puppies grow up by all means use one of the free blogging tools out there. We recommend Blogger because it is more easily monetized but that's just us.

If however you want a tool that will help you get your message or products across in an effective way with tightly integrated feedback that allows you to quickly adapt to the changing needs of your base - you need an online business. You need an iBusiness.

If you doubt it, take a good look at the iBusiness2 website and feature compare it with the others. You won't find a single-console hosted product that combines all the real time performance data with content management with the ability to create web apps and email marketing campaigns.

We take your iBusiness one step further and integrate it with social media to give you a popular conduit to bring eyes to your content.

Let us show you in person if you are in our market area, or set you up with a 30 day free trial where you can watch the free training videos and see the product in action. We can demo it over skype as well.

I think you'll see the reasons an iBusiness2 is not your daddy's content management system or just one more blogging tool.

Let me say first, that this blog will only be updated on Fridays - so please don't panic that you've been getting them daily this week. Now on with the topic at hand.

There is a bewildering array of places to promote your business online. Too many to keep track of for sure. So let me give you the three places you cannot ignore or do so at your own peril.

1. The Google Search Engine. You must tailor your online business or website to improve your placement in the Google search engine. You must. Now I understand that there are companies calling local businesses offering to do this for you - you do NOT need them. With a little googling of the term "SEO" you can learn and implement the basics on your own. I'll give you the big three..

Content. Google indexes the words in your website, so the more words you have the better. To plug our offering - an ibusiness allows you to add your own pages whenever you want. Long form content doesn't cost more and is much easier to correct.

Page Titles and Metatags. The page title (and even the page URL) should enforce your online businesses' message. Again iBusiness is designed to do this. You can even add your own metatags or we'll do it for you when we set up your site.

Links. Google ranks you on how many people link back to you. It's a simple matter to have other noncompeting businesses to provide what we call reciprocal links to improve your ranking on Google.

2. Google Maps and the Google Local Business Center (part of maps). This may be the one you didn't expect. Google maps is on both of the major smartphone platforms iPhone and Android. Every day millions of people are using Google Maps to find things around them. If you are not in control of the information Google is displaying about your business there then you are at the mercy of what they have guessed is the correct info. Search for your business on Google Maps, if it pops up click the "More Info" link in the word balloon above your push pin. If the at the top of the page you see a "Business Owner?" link there - then you need to claim your business listing. you can also go to http://google.com/local and begin there.

3. Facebook. You knew this one. Facebook is at 450 million users. Your business should have a page on Facebook that is helping people find your iBusiness. Once at your online business they should find it easy to buy products or give you an email address to start receiving special offers from you. We try to incorporate this important marketing into every online business we help build for our customers. How important is Facebook? I built a community page for my hometown just to see what the Facebook Community Pages are like, in three days I had 37 fans and this was a page I was NOT even promoting. Facebook is the perfect jumping off place for people to click through to becoming your valued customer or client.

If you would like help setting up a strategy to improve your Google ranking, or getting set up on Maps or Facebook just fill out our Contact Form - we would be more than happy to help you in person or via Skype conferencing.

When I was younger I remember riding the bus downtown to shop in great department stores like Kress, Woolworth, and Marks Rothenberg. You could walk around downtown and see all the things available. Pick out something you like and start gathering up returnable bottles on the side of the road so you could collect the deposit money to buy it.

That was a long time ago. Nowadays my time is always crunched, and most of my work is digital - so I often spend hours sitting in front of "Presentor" (my nickname for my ginormous presentation laptop). When I need to search for an item, even an item like Presentor (which I bought at our local Office Depot) - I start my shopping online.

Don't get me wrong - I am a staunch defender of shopping local but when I am doing my research at my fingertips I always start on the Internet. A lot of folks do it and like it or hate it - it isn't going to change anytime soon.

That's what I like about this new hosted solution we are offering our clients - the iBusiness (or online business). It's a game changer. Something that levels the playing field a bit. Now for an investment that is cheap compared to other advertising products (price out an ad in the Yellow Pages sometime) - you can have the same exposure and  an online store that is just one mouse click away from the giants like Amazon, NewEgg, and others.

When the convenience factor is equal, in other words I can buy online as easily from you as I can other online businesses, I will be much more likely to buy local. To reinvest in my community, even if the price is more.

It was like I was explaining to a potential client last week. My veterinarian saved my dog's life once. If I can get my dog's flea and tick products from them as easy as I can from some big company that I can't call when my dog eats a poisonous frog - I'm going to stay loyal AND I will encourage my friends to do the same.

In this new age, where we are all pressed for time - it might be time for you to consider an online business that levels the playing field in terms of convenience to your customers.